Yuki-Onna
by CBJPP
Summary: Things I learned about Yuki-Onna and her story
1. Looks

\- Snow woman

\- Beutiful young woman

– Tall

– Long Hair

– Very Pale skin, almost seems transparent

– Eyes that can terrify anyone just by looking at them

\- Alternate Outfits

– White kimono

– Naked laying on the snow

— Face and hair are the only contrast with what's around her

\- Movement

– Floats over the snow, leaving no trace

– Some people say she doesnt have feet

\- Feeling Threatend

– Vanish

— Turning into a cloud of smoke or snow

\- Association

– Snow and winter


	2. Myth

\- Origin(s)

– A spirit of a pregnant woman who froze to death in the snow, which is why she sometimes has a baby in her arms

– A princess from the moon, who tired of her life came down to Earth in a snowstorm to explore and never knew how to get back

\- Evil Nature

– Her beauty hypnotize's people who are tired of fighting against the storm, she uses her frozen breath to calm them down and send them to sleep until they pass out and turn into ice sculptures. Sometimes she just disorientate's them into getting lost and dying in the snow.

– In other legends she goes into people's houses, using a guest of wind to knock the door down and kill them while they sleep

– Sometimes she takes the shape of a succubus, or a female demon, to seduce weak men, and with a kiss take their vitality away.

– In Niegata she kidnaps kids

– In Iwate and Miyaga she takes souls

– In Ibaraki she throws men who ignore her off cliffs

– In Aomori, she's called Ubume, and she asks travellers to hold her baby, but the baby is so heavy that the person can't move and freezes to death

\- Culture

– Most Classic

– Appears is most franchises

— anime, manga, video games, movies, etc

\- Merciful Side

– Story: Kwaiden, stories and studies of strange things

— One winter night, Minokichi and his mentor Mosaku, were going back home after a long trip. The last obstacle they had was going across a river, but when they got there, they were surprised by the boatman not beign there. This, plus the weather conditions, forced them to spend the night in his cabin. Mosaku fell exhausted, but it took his decile longer to fall asleep, with all the noise of the storm at the door.


	3. Wikipedia's Story

In legends from theOjiyaregion ofNiigata Prefecture, a beautiful woman came to visit a man and became his wife from the woman's own desire. This woman was reluctant to go into the bath and when she was made to go in anyway, she disappeared, leaving only thin, fragmented, floating icicles (see alsotsurara-onna).

In theAomoriandYamagata Prefectures, there is a similar story about one called the "Shigama-onna."In theKaminoyamaregion of Yamagata, a yuki-onna would come visit an old couple on a snowy night to warm herself by theirori. When late at night the Yuki-onna would again go out on a journey, the old man would attempt to take her hand to stop her, when he noticed that she was chillingly cold. Then, before his eyes, the girl turned into a whirl of snow that exited the house through the chimney. Also, it has some points of similarity with thekokakuchō; and on the night of ablizzard, as the Yuki-onna would be standing there hugging a child (yukinko), it would ask people passing by to hug the child as well. When one hugs the child, the child would become heavier and heavier until one would become covered with snow and freeze to death.It has also been told that if one refuses, one would be shoved down into a snowy valley.

InHirosakiin Aomori, it is said that there was a warrior (bushi) who was asked by a yuki-onna to hug a child similarly, but the warrior held a short sword (tantō) by the mouth and hugged the child while making the blade go close to the child's head, which allowed the warrior to avoid the aforementioned phenomenon. When the warrior handed the child back to the Yuki-onna, the ghoul gave many treasures as thanks for hugging the child. It is also said that those who are able to withstand the ever-increasing weight of the yukinko and last all the way through would acquire great physical strength.

In theInaregion ofNagano Prefecture, Yuki-onna is called "yukionba," and it is believed that they would appear on a snowy night in the form of ayama-uba. Similarly, in Yoshida,Ehime Prefecture, on a night when snow is accumulating on the ground, a "yukinba" is said to appear, and people would make sure not to let their children outside. Also, in the Tōno region ofIwate Prefecture, and on Little New Year (koshōgatsu) or the 15th day of the first month, a yuki-onna would take many children along to a field to play, so children were warned against going outside. It can be thus seen that yuki-onna are often considered the same as theyama-uba,sharing the similarity that they are fecund and take many children along with them.

In the Ito region ofWakayama Prefecture, it is said that there would be a one-legged child jump-walking on a night when snow accumulates, and the next morning there would be round footprints remaining, and this would be called the "yukinbō" (snow child), but the one-legged snow kid is thought to be the servant of amountain god.

In the village of Oshika,Tōhaku District,Tottori Prefecture(nowMisasa), it has been said that a yuki-onna would come during light snow and say "Koori gose yu gose" ("Give me ice, give me hot water") — "gose" is a dialect word for "give me" — while waving around a whitewand, and she would bulge when splashed with water and disappear when splashed with hot water.

In the area around theKumano RiverinYoshino District,Nara Prefecture, the "Oshiroi baa-san" or "oshiroi babaa" is also thought to be a type of Yuki-onna, and they are said to drag alongmirrors, making clinking sounds while doing so. These characteristics, that of waving around a white wand (gohei) and possessing a mirror, are thought to be the characteristics of amikowho serves a mountain god that rules over birth andharvest.

In Aomori, it is actually said that a yuki-onna would come down to the village on the third day of Shōgatsu and return to the mountains on the first day of Rabbit, and it is thought that on years when the day of Rabbit is late in arriving, how well the harvest does will be different from before.

In theIwateand theMiyagi Prefectures, a yuki-onna is thought to steal people's vitality and in Niigata Prefecture, they are said to take theliversout of children and freeze people to death. In Nishimonai,Akita Prefecture, looking at a yuki-onna's face and exchanging words with her would result in being eaten. InIbaraki Prefectureand inIwaki Province,Fukushima Prefecture, it is said that if one does not answer when called by a yuki-onna, one would be shoved down into the bottom of a valley.In theFukui Prefecture, they are called "koshi-musume" (越娘, "passing girl") and it is said that those who turn their backs to a koshi-musume when being called by one would get pushed into a valley.

InIbigawa,Ibi District,Gifu Prefecture, an invisible monster called the "yukinobō" is said to change their appearance and appear as a yuki-onna. It is said that this monster would appear atmountain hutsand ask for water, but if one grants the request, one would be killed, so one should give hotteainstead. It is said that in order to make the yukinbō go away, one should chant "Saki kuromoji ni ato bōshi, shimetsuke haitara, ikanaru mono mo, kanō mai" (meaning "Akurujoin front and abōshibehind, by wearing these tight, nothing is possible").

TheHirosaki, Aomori legend about a yuki-onna returning to the human world onNew Year's Day(Shōgatsu) and the legend inTōno,Iwate Prefectureabout yuki-onna taking away many children to play on "Little New Year" (koshōgatsu)- looking at the days on which they visit, both legends offer insight on how the yuki-onna has some characteristics of atoshigami. The story of how when one person treated a yuki-onna with kindness on a blizzard night, the yuki-onna turned intogoldthe next morning; illustrating how even in old tales such as theŌtoshi no Kyaku, the yuki-onna has some relation to the characteristics of a toshigami.

Yuki-onna often appear while taking along children. This is in common with another yōkai that takes along children, theubume. In theMogami District,Yamagata Prefecture, ubume are said to be yuki-onna.

They often appear in stories aboutinter-species marriage, and stories similar to Lafcadio Hearn'sYuki-onnawhere a mountain hunter gets together with a woman who stayed the night as a guest and eventually birthing a child when one day the man carelessly talked about the taboo of getting together with a yuki-onna resulting in the woman revealing herself to be a yuki-onna but not killing the man due to having a child between them and warning, "If anything happens to the child, you won't get away with it" before going away can be found inNiigata Prefecture,Toyama Prefecture, and theNagano Prefecture, which came about as a result of many stories aboutmountain peoplewhere those who break the mountain taboos would be killed by mountain spirits. There is also the hypothesis that the yuki-onna legend was born from a mixture of paranormal stories of mountain people and the paranormal yuki-onna stories.

Old tales about yuki-onna are mostly stories of sorrow, and it is said that these tales started from when people who have lived gloomy lives, such as childless old couples or single men in mountain villages, would hear the sound of a blizzard knocking on their shutter door and fantasize that the thing that they longed for has come. It is said that after that, they would live in happiness with what they longed for in a fantasy as fleeting as snow. There is also a feeling of fear, and like as in theTōno Monogatari, the sound of a blizzard knocking on an outer shōji is called the "shōji sasuri" (rubbing a shōji), and there is a custom of making children who stayed up late go to sleep quickly when a yuki-onna rubs a shōji. From real sayings such as the shōji sasuri, it is said that things that one longs for sits back-to-back with fear. Also, winter is the season when gods would come to visit, and if one does not pay respects, terrible things will happen, so even if it is said to be things that one longs for, one cannot put too much trust in that. In any case, it can be said to be related to the coming and going of seasons.Nobuyoshi Furuhashi, scholar of Japanese literature, stated that the novelKaze no Matasaburōis also probably somehow related.

There are various legends about the yuki-onna's true identity, such as saying that the yuki-onna is a snow spirit or the spirit of a woman who fell over in the snow. In asetsuwaof the Oguni region of Yamagata Prefecture, a yuki-jorō (yuki-onna) was originally a princess of the moon world and in order to leave a boring lifestyle came down to earth together with snow but was unable to go back to the moon and so is said to appear on snowy moonlit nights.

Yamaoka Genrin, an intellectual from theEdo period, said that yuki-onna is born from snow. It was supposed that if there were a lot of something, a living thing would come forth from it, giving birth to fish if the water is deep enough and birds if the forest is thick enough. Since both snow and women are "yin," so in places like Echigo it is said that yuki-onna might be born from within deep snow.

Among Japan's traditional culture, Yuki-onna can be seen inkōwakasuch as theFushimi Tokiwa(伏見常磐), which can also be checked in modern times. InChikamatsu Monzaemon'sYuki-onna Gomai Hagoita, the story is about how a woman who was deceived and murdered became a yuki-onna and took revenge as avengeful ghost. The bewitching and frightening aspects of a yuki-onna are often used in such depictions. Old tales and legends like these have been confirmed in Aomori, Yamagata, Iwate, Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Wakayama, Ehime, among other places.


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